Return Of Elijah In Relativistic Time Travel!

After I had already begun the new series concerning the “Structure Of Matter”, I was recently invited by my Dad to participate in a topic with his friend, who is also an author. The topic relates to the question of whether the prophet Elijah re-incarnated as John the Baptist or not?

Subsequently, I replied his author friend (Vet Doctor) with more biblical evidence in an email a few days ago based on the discussion below such that I   am compelled to add this discussion to my previous blogs series on “Relativistic Time Travel”. Later, we shall resume the series concerning "The Structure Of Matter". The discussion below is based on my email in support of the biblical answer to the question of re-incarnation.

Elijah and John the Baptist

The Bible emphatically states that it is appointed for men to die only once before the judgment day. Implicitly, the incarnation or physical birth of a person can only occur once if it is appointed unto men to die once before the judgment.

 “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.’ (Hebrews 9:27)

Consequently, the scriptures only teach concerning resurrection of the dead and judgment but not re-incarnation. There are many scriptural patterns that repeat themselves in history but the Bible never uses these patterns to teach re-incarnation.  

A typical example of the patterns that repeat themselves is the similarities between the life of Elijah and John the Baptist, who exhibited similar traits despite hundreds of years apart. Amusingly, Elijah the Tishbite was a hairy man that wore a garment of leather and a leather belt in his time on earth (2 Kings 1:8). Likewise, John the Baptist also wore similar attire of leather made of camel's hair and a leather belt while he preached in the wilderness on a special diet of locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4).

Sadly, the greatest threat to the life of Elijah was from a woman named Jezebel the wife of king Ahab. As a type of Elijah that was to come, it was not a coincidence that the greatest threat to the life of John the Baptist was also from a woman named Herodias, the supposed wife of king Herod. We know for sure that Jezebel did not re-incarnate as Herodias even though the same manner Jezebel made attempts to kill Elijah the prophet was similar to how Herodias tried to kill John the Baptist. “Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not.’ (Mark 6:19)

These illustrations simply confirm the scriptural prophecies and patterns of how John the Baptist was sent from heaven as a type of Elijah and under the empowerment of the same Spirit that energized the prophetic office of Elijah. Similarly, the spiritual opposition from the enemy that operated in Jezebel against Elijah the prophet also influenced Herodias against John the Baptist.

In view of above, Is John the Baptist the same person as Elijah?  No!!!

As a type of Elijah, John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus Christ at his first coming just as  Elijah was promised to come back from his time-travel to do the same work before the second coming of Christ. Let us recall from the scriptures that Elijah did not die before he ascended into heaven in time travel.  In fulfillment of prophecies, the Elijah that ascended in time travel would come back, as one of the two witnesses of the Great Tribulation period that would precede the second coming of Christ (See Revelation).

(Mal 4:5-6) “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD”

 To erroneously declare that John the Baptist was the same person as Elijah is just like saying that Elijah was the same person as Elisha, which is not correct.

According to the scriptures, Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit upon himself.   He was promised this request would be granted if he was able to discern the time that Elijah his mentor would be taken to heaven, which he saw. When Elisha saw Elijah ascending into heaven, his mantle fell down on Elisha, and he received a double portion of Elijah’s power. The sons of the prophets that witnessed this empowerment said that, “…The Spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” (2Kings 2:15)

In other words, Elisha began to act under the same spiritual influence that energized Elijah. Notwithstanding, the fact that a double portion of the spirit and power of Elijah rested on Elisha did not convert Elisha into Elijah. It only made Elisha to perform similar acts like his predecessor. He struck the water and it divided just as it did before with Elijah but it is clear that they were two different personalities exhibiting similar traits because they were energized by the same spirit.

Similarly, the scripture clearly revealed that Elijah and John were two different persons that exhibited similar traits by virtue of the empowerment from the same spiritual office because it was the same spirit and power of Elijah that energized John the Baptist from the womb.

“And thou shall call his name John…and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb. And He (The Lord) shall go before him in the spirit and power of Eli’as, to turn the hearts of the father to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.” (Luke 1: 13, 16-17)

According to the scripture above, the power of the Spirit of God had begun to manifest in the life of John the Baptist in his mother’s womb with the energy of the spirit and power of Elijah. This simply teaches that it is possible to give birth to a person that exhibits similar characteristics like somebody in the past due to the influence of the same spiritual energy that was seen in his predecessor.

 As the greatest man born of woman in the Old Testament, John was empowered by the spirit and power that was seen in the life of Elijah,” but he was born as John and not Elijah’s re-incarnate. John the Baptist  was the last and greatest of the prophets of the Old Testament, whose greater portion of spiritual energy was from the same lamp of the Spirit of God that once manifested in the life of Elijah the prophet (Malachi 3: 1; Luke1: 13-17). As a forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist was born into the world to fulfill the same role of Elijah the prophet.

‘But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he…For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.  And if ye will receive it, this is Eli’as, which was to come.’ (Matthew 11: 13-14)

Prophetically, John was considered as Elijah because John came to fulfill a similar role like Elijah. This gave him the same authority through the ministry of the Spirit that empowered Elijah. However, it was clear that John was different from Elijah even though they were empowered by the same spirit.

(John 1:19-21)- "And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you? And he confessed, and did not deny but  he confessed, "I am not the Christ. And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No."

The book of Malachi speaks of two messengers with the same spiritual office. The first is the forerunner of Christ’s first coming, whose name was not given. This was the office fulfilled by John the Baptist, when the Lord came to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Mal.3:1: “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.”

The messenger in the context above was John the Baptist, just as predicted in Isa.40:3-4, who was born into the world as a baby about six months before the birth of Jesus (Luke 1: 76).

“The voice crying out in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isa.40:3-4)

As the messenger sent to prepare the way for Christ’s first coming, John the Baptist was the voice of the Lord that was crying in the wilderness in the spirit and power of Elijah.

“Then said they unto him, Who are you? …He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said by the prophet E-saias” (John 1:23)  

 In Luke 4:18 when Jesus stood up in the temple and quoted from the book of Isaiah 61:1-2, he stopped reading after proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord but he did not read of the day of vengeance of our God before he closed the book. This is reserved for the tribulation period in which Elijah would return and preach before the Lord’s Day of Vengeance!

The first coming of Christ was through his incarnation as the baby born in a manger but the second Coming of Christ would be the return of the resurrected adult that ascended into heaven, when he would return to declare the Lord’s Day of Vengeance. Before this event, Elijah the prophet would also return in his adulthood as the messenger before the second coming of Christ because Elijah did not die before he ascended to heaven in time travel.

In Malachi 4:5-6 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.  We are told the prophet Elijah will come before the great and terrible day of the Lord (the tribulation).

In fulfillment of prophecies, it is after Elijah returns as a witness that he would taste death and be resurrected, so that he could complete his part as one of the two witnesses of the Great Tribulation in representative capacity of the Law and Prophets.

Malachi is the name of the last book of the Old Testament that made references to the ministry of John the Baptist and Elijah’s second coming.  The word angel is translated from this same Hebrew word “Malachi”, which means “messenger” and it may also refer to a human spirit that is sent as a messenger and witness to spread the heavenly light of the word of God. John the Baptist was the messenger (Malachi) sent from heaven into the world as a witness to prepare the way for the First coming of the Son of God. ‘…He was a burning and a shining light; and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater witness than that of John.’ (John 5: 35-36)

Elijah would return from heaven as a great tribulation witness and the second Malachi or messenger in anticipation for the Second coming of the Son of God. Let us recall from my previous blog posts on “time travel” that the two witnesses of the Great Tribulation Period would be Enoch and Elijah, who lived on earth as the predecessors of Moses and John the Baptist in representative capacity of the “Law and Prophets” before they ascended in time travel.

When they return to the Earth in anticipation of the Day of Vengeance, they would have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of their prophecy just like Elijah did in his days. They would be able to make fire consume any enemy that attempts to hurt them just like Elijah previously did. They would also have power to demonstrate all the plagues that Moses did in the land of Egypt such as turning waters into blood (Revelation 11: 3-12). The prophecies concerning the return of Enoch and Elijah from their time-travel relates to the events concerning the Lord’s Day of Vengeance, as the concluding part of Isaiah’s prophecies.

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 14-15)

Enoch understood the ways (laws and principles) of God just like Moses because he walked with God and was taken up in time-travel (Exodus 33:13; Psalm 25: 12, 14).

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.’ (Gen. 5: 24)

‘He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.’ (Psalm103: 7)

Enoch was a type of Moses in representative capacity of the Law because he knew the ways of God such that he was taken up in time travel. Before he also ascended in time travel, Elijah was a type of John the Baptist in representative capacity of the prophets that turned the hearts of the father to the children. These two time-travelers shall return to the Earth in the future as the two witnesses of the Great Tribulation period in representative capacity of the “Law and Prophets”.